Several ranking senators on the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee (HSGAC) were briefed on Thursday by Acting Director of the U.S. Secret Service Ronald Lowe on the investigation into the July assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump.
“I believe the American people will be shocked, surprised and appalled by what we will report about the Secret Service failures during the assassination attempt on a former president,” Rep. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), chairman of the HSGAC Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations (PSI), told Fox News Digital after the briefing.
But the senator declined to discuss details of what he heard at the meeting.
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The four ranking senators on the Homeland Security Committee have been briefed on the investigation into the assassination attempt on President Trump. (Reuters)
After briefing Blumenthal, PSI executive Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), HSGAC Chairman Gary Peters (D-Mich.), and HSGAC executive Rand Paul (R-Ky.), Rowe went to the House of Representatives to similarly brief the Donald J. Trump Assassination Attempt Task Force.
““I think the director is committed to making sure this never happens again, so I appreciate that he's working on it,” Paul said after leaving the briefing.
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After surviving an assassination attempt in July, Trump famously pumped his fist in the air and yelled “fight!” at the crowd. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
He added that “gross negligence” occurred when Trump was shot in the ear at an outdoor campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on July 13, leaving one attendee dead and two seriously injured.
He said the commission's bipartisan interim report on the assassination attempt is expected to be released within days.
“I think they're going to identify very specific errors that were made in this case,” Paul said.
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Johnson was among the senators briefed. (Umit Bektas)
Peters stressed that the upcoming report was “only an interim report as there is still a lot of information to be found”.
“We are hopeful that the release of this report will provide the additional information necessary for a full accounting of what happened and steps on what needs to be done to ensure this never happens again in the future,” he told Fox News.
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Blumenthal said he expected people would be shocked by the report. (AP Photo/Maryam Zuhaib)
Paul told reporters that no new information had been received about the shooter's motive.
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The Secret Service's initial briefing to senators just days after the assassination attempt left many senators unsatisfied: Johnson said at the time that “virtually no information” was shared and that discussions mainly consisted of “checking boxes.”
The day after the shooting, an aide to Chairman Peters told Fox News Digital that the committee would open an investigation into the assassination attempt, and that the chairman planned to meet with DHS Secretary Mayorkas over the weekend.
